From: sharoneric
Subject: Concert Review of Mob Rules Tour, 5/18/1982, Providence, RI
Date sent: Sun, 5 Sep 2004 02:20:00 -0400 (EDT)

I had fallen in love with Sabbath after hearing the song "Heaven and Hell" on the radio. I remember thining that this was everything I wanted in music: power, anger, grace, passion, and fire. I quickly bought up all the older/Ozzy-era records (I still have them all on 12" vinyl LP's for those of you who are old enough to remember what those are), and I also bought the "Blizzard of Ozz" album. When "Black and Blue" played in the theater, I saw it. When I found a bootleg record or tape, I bouoght it, too. I was hooked on the music that these guys created.

I remember hearing "The Mob Rules" first on the soundtrack to "Heavy Metal." I think I knew it was going to be in the movie from a heavy metal newsletter I used to get, because I remember listening for that Sabbath sound in the movie. I memorized the song after hearing it once in that movie, and sang it to myself every day for the entire hour I did my paper route. When the album came out, I listened to my copy constantly.

Despite my begging, my parents wouldn't let me go with my friends to see Sabbath when they were coming to Boston in March, 1982. So I came up with the idea of that my cousin in RI could take me to the to the show in Providence because he was 10 years older than I. They and he agreed.

After we got our tickets (about the 30th row on the floor. Yes!), the show had been postponed from February to May: an eternity to a 13 year old who only wanted to see his idols live. This also meant that my friend, John, would see Sabbath before me in Boston (instead me seeing Sabbath before they did), which made it even harder for me.

When the big day finally came, my parents dropped me off at my cousin's apartment in the afternoon, and he drove us to the Civic Center early. It was assigned seating, but he knew how excited I was to see my favorite band. He was excited, too, he would later confess.

As we parked on a dirt lot under I-95, we were approached by a "vendor" selling a bootlegged shirt, which I ended up buying on the way out. It had the Mob Rules cover on the front, and the back was basically the bed-frame from the "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" cover with two handes eacah holding a dagger with the words "Live Tour" between them. (Joe, I've already sent you pics of this and my other shirts, but let me know if you want me to send them again.)

After we arrived, bought some "real" shirts and a tour program, we went inside as the place gradually filled with people and smoke. My cousin told me that he had seen Sabbath in 1970 or so with Herman's Hermits (Joe, do you know if this crazy combination ever happened? I didn't see it in the old tour dates.) He mentioned robed conert-goers with candles and crosses.

I was unpleasantly surprised to see Doc Holliday open instead of The Outlaws: at least I knew some Outlaws tunes, but it didn't matter. Sabbath were soon to come.

The lights dimmed, and I expected "Supertzar" to play in the band. When "E5150" started instead, I thought, "Yeah, this is the Mob Rules tour!" My friend told me that they opened with "Neon Knights," so I knew that was going to be great. Dio's voice was strong. The music was loud and clear.

Since you can see the set list on this site or on the Live Evil album, I wont go into too much detail there. There were three backdrops, one of which was the Mob Rules cover. I can't now recall if the cemetery and dark church with stained glass windows were two different backdrops, or if they were one backdrop with me forgetting the third backdrop.

The light and stage show was phenominal. Most of teh night the lights were just what you'd have expected. During the song "Black Sabbath," there was a red spotlight on Dio's face for either the "Big black shape with eyes of fire" or the "Satan sitting there; he's smiling" line. I no longer recall which, but I do remember being floored by his vicious laugh after the latter line. During "Heaven and Hell," aldd the lights went on and an eourmous cross comprised of lights was lowered from it's hiding stop up above. It must have had three or four rows of brilliant white lights and looked like this with each circle being a brillint white light bulb:

OOO
OOO
OOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOO
OOO
OOO
OOO
OOO
OOO
OOO

There were also similar lights (though not all in corsses) in the drum riser and in the rafters aove the band, which were all this brillian white light illumniating teh stage and the band.

There were also lots of pyroitechnics. After the "Wacth as those flames go higher and higher" line in "Black Sabbath" and during the midde of "Heaven and Hell" when Dio gois into the "Big black shape looking up at me" part. After he says, I'm going to burn in Hell with all of you," the two columns of flame and spark went from the front corners of teh stage all the way up to ceiling which I noticed before we left was covered in black soot. I remember being disappointed that Dio had us sing the words, "Heaven and Hell" instead of "On and on and on" as he had done in Black and Blue and on my Heaven and Hell Bootleg (Their Satanic Majesties Return). It seems irrelevant to me know, as I'd rather teh singer sind the song and let the audience hear him at his craft.

Since our seats were to the left of the arena, I watched Geezer a little more than I watched Tony. I thought then that Geezer was in rare form, but he has been on par with that performance every time every time that I have seen him since then. Tony has become more interactive with the audience over the years. Back then, he hardly moved from his spot in front of his amps, and rarely looked out into the crowd. He was (and is)as cool as hell. Dio took time during the longer instrumental breaks (solos, the end of Iron Man, etc) to change outfits. He wore three or four different outfits: the white puffy sleeved pirate-style shirt under the balck vest, the black shirt with the purple laced front, and another I can't recall in detail. I thought he was also one of the coolest people to ever have walked the earth: such a huge voice, beautiful imagey in his lyrics, and sweet,powerful melodies.

As we left after the lights came on and fluff played over the PA, I remeber talking with people in the crowd about the Dio or Ozzy question as it was still very popular at the time. I couldn't then and still can't decide between Ozzy's tortured mania or Dio's artful power. They are nearly opposite ends of teh spectrum and are both great frontmen. (Don't get me wrong: I appreciate Gillan, Hughes, Gillen, Martin, et al, too, but they were not around at the time.

As we walked to he car, that same t-shirt vendor came back with a reduced price. My cousin bough it for me as a thank you for bringing him back to see Sabbath again all of these years later.

This concert had a huge imapct on my appreciation of live music, as it has set a standard which has seldom been reached again. Perhaps it was my youns age or my general inexperience, but this concert still stands out as the best ever. I've seen hundreds (thousands?) of concerts at arenas, stadiums, and clubs, (an I was lucky enough to see Sabbath seven more times since this show with four other singers), and this still remains an all time favortie, partially for sentimental reasons.